ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Voice - Data - Video Discussion OT: Have we gone too far?.

Reason I ask this folks, is because with moving into a new place, I had no TV and no computer they were both packed away, what I did have though was my little CD player and a recently purchased copy of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds and a pair of headphones.
Well, anyone that has ever heard this composition would think that Orson Wells would be proud.
But I pose the question, with all this Audio and Video and new formats and the like.
A lot of people that I've installed Home theater systems for tend to turn the volume up far too loud (at least for my liking anyway).
A guy that I know well wanted something better than a plasma TV, I suggested that he look at getting a projector and shine it on to a wall in his lounge.
His wife didn't like it and at the same time didn't want the wall colour changed to make the picture better.
But, I ask the question, are we getting out of control as far as technology goes?.
I have an old valve radio in my new garage, why must we have the latest and greatest NOW?.
The valve radio gives me the news every hour as it is supposed to do, so why change?.

Mt luddite tendencies come out when it comes to phones. I still have 3 with rotary dial, the rest are still Western Electrics and all of them are corded, even my "car" phone (a moto "bag" hard wired into the car). I don't have a digital flip phone.
I also stopped upgrading operating systems at W98 SE but I still have 4 DOS 6.3 systems running.

I remember my folks making my kid brother go outside in the dark to adjust the satellite dish.
...by hand........in the snow.........barefoot

Yep, technology has made people "hide" from reality with all the home theatre equipment. For years, a second televison set was a luxury item (thought by some as over-indulgance)
Even in this day & age, some places less than 25-30km from here only run their generators 8 hours a day. (0600-0900 & 1600-2100)

Mike you sound like a grumpy old man.

I bet there were people in the past that had the same feeling about those new fancy valve radios, high voltage power lines and those fancy flying machines.

I still like to play accoustic.

Out of control? You should spend a few weeks in Japan, it puts that question into perspective.

Let's see, I'm typing this on my 98SE puter while watching a special on my '78 Super Bowl Steelers on my early 80s Commodore monitor. I still have all my LPs in the other room below the Denon receiver and between the Infinity speakers I bought in '85. I don't use the W95 laptop much these days or the 386 desktop with DOS 4.01 but I know that they shall rise again. Finally, I'm hoping to fix my old C-64 in time for my Sweetie Pie's 5th birthday.
Joe

Greg and Joe, I am with you. My wife and son shamed me into upgrading my cell phone in January. The Motorola Startac that I had prior worked just fine, but it wasn't "cool" enough. I still use it as my backup phone by paying for an extra account. That way, when my new "cool" phone breaks monthly, I can forward my calls to it. I only upgraded to the Startac in 1996 because my prior Motorola analog phone was no longer supported by Verizon. It was the size of a shoe, but it never let me down. I still have that bad-boy, but I can't use it. Perhaps someday, I will sell that thing to a collector on e-bay and retire.

My computer at home runs on Win98SE and will continue to do so until it dies. I will then transfer the programs and data to another machine running Win98. At work, we use NT and I am OK with it because I have to, but I prefer to go with what I know works. My wife and son's computers are constantly plagued with problems using the other Windows versions at home. I can't tell you how many times they ask me if they can use mine because theirs has "problems".

By the way, I have about 300 LP's left from my collection, but nothing to play them on. My kids broke the tone arm on my Marantz turntable years ago. I made the mistake of going to Radio Shack looking for a replacement and the kid behind the counter said.............Well, you know what he said.

EV607797: do you find that you have to charge the StarTac frequently? I had one of these and gave it up because it discharged so quickly. I know several other folks who found the same problem. Did you change to a different battery type?